"the 12th man" redux

[Ben Zimmer]

On Fri, Jan 31, 2014 at 11:16 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
>
> My latest Wall Street Journal column is on "the 12th man," a phrase
> that the Seattle Seahawks have to pay Texas A&M a licensing fee to
> use. I present some historical evidence that might undercut A&M's
> trademark claim, including examples of "the 12th man" to refer to fans
> of college football teams predating the legendary 1922 A&M game where,
> according to Aggie lore, the phrase was born.
>
> Link to column: http://on.wsj.com/12manbz
[...]
> More to come on Monday in my Word Routes column on Vocabulary.com and
> the Visual Thesaurus.

And here's the follow-up:

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/the-twelfth-man-a-football-phrase-with-disputed-roots/

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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